Jacqui
Krizo/For the Capital PressBruce Topham,
owner of the Flying T Salers Ranch near Sprague River, Ore., said
the propaganda about these Salers cattle sounded too good to be
true. Today, 26 years later with 500 Salers, he is a believer.

Over a picnic lunch with his family at Flying T Salers
Ranch, Bruce Topham was telling about the time two uninvited
telephone company men drove all over his property in the mud,
making ruts in the hayfields and airstrip.

They were planning where to put some telephone lines.

Topham and Erika Bentsen were explaining private property to
them when the red Salers bull Diablo came storming across the
pasture aimed right at them men. The intruders couldn’t get away
fast enough, each trying to hide behind the other.

What Topham and Bentsen never did tell them was that Diablo
just wanted a hug and his head scratched.

The picnickers roared with laughter.

Such is the disposition of Salers cattle, and the Tophams.

In 1972, after raising grapes and cattle in Fresno and farming
in Wyoming, Topham and his wife, Virginia, set out in search of
the perfect cattle ranch. They wanted property with privacy,
plenty of water and room for an airstrip. After a phone call from
a Realtor, the Tophams flew their 1946 Stinson to Klamath Falls,
Ore., to inspect the property.

“We flew up, saw it and signed the papers within an hour,”
Bruce said.

“I liked the privacy,” Virginia said. “And we were impressed by
the water.

“We came with a wheelbarrow, shovel and desire. This property,
formerly part of the Klamath Tribal reservation, looked nothing
like this when we arrived,” he said. “It was sagebrush, juniper
and rocks, and the timber had been logged. There was slash
everywhere. We hauled off five semi-truck loads of trash and 13
wrecked cars. The only structure on the property was our
100-year-old house. We burned the slash, developed the irrigation,
and built the barn and sheds with lumber we milled ourselves.”

Now the ranch is picture-perfect.

“When we got the property, we could put up 100 tons of hay and
summer 75 yearling heifers. Now we harvest 600 tons and pasture
200 pair on the home place. In developing the pasture and
hayfields, we enhanced the habitat for wildlife,” Topham said,
adding that about 75 new bird species nest on the ranch.

The Flying T Salers Ranch is home to the Tophams, their grown
children Susan and Brandan, and neighboring rancher Erika Bentsen.
They are the entire crew.

“We introduced Salers bulls to help with calving ease. We read
the propaganda about these ancient cows, and it sounded too good
to be true,” said Topham. “Every breed claims to be the best, but
Salers promised light birth weight bulls for our heifers and less
problems with our calving.”

According to the American Salers Association, Salers are
healthy, vigorous and easy to handle. Calving is easy, the cows
are maternal and carcasses are excellent.

The website states: “Salers carcasses have dominated some of
the most competitive carcass quality competitions in the country,
including the National Western Fed Beef Contest and the Great
Western Beef Expo.” And the animals will pasture where other
cattle will not venture.

The Tophams bought two Salers bulls and figured in a couple
years, with on-the-ranch experience, they would tell the world
what was wrong with this breed.

That was 26 years ago. The herd has grown to 500 cows, and the
Tophams have yet to find any problems. The first year, they
discovered the calves were born to live. If they weren’t tagged in
the first hour after birth, they were hard to catch. They were the
first calves that the coyotes didn’t catch.

Topham’s first calf heifers produce calves that are 15 pounds
lighter at birth; however, they weigh 70 pounds more than other
breeds when they are weaned. The bulls live approximately 15
years; the cows, 15-19 years. His bulls weigh 1,900 pounds at
maturity and are still breeding at 10 to 12 years of age.

A Salers bull services two to three times as many cows as other
breeds. The bulls are very fertile. He had 90 calves born from a
single bull in 28 days. Cows weigh around 1,200 pounds.

Topham attributed much of his herd’s longevity and soundness to
being raised on grass and grass hay with no grain in their diet.

Susan
Topham holds one of the calves at the Flying T Salers Ranch. She
loves working with Salers cattle, and says this breed is
exceptionally tame. Jacqui Krizo for the Capital Press.

Susan Topham praised the Salers’ behavior. “They are nice cows.
They surround you, lick your shoes. They like us,” she said. “We
often move up to 400 cows on foot when the snow and ice make
riding horses too dangerous.”

She said she hopes to stay on the ranch. “This is where I want
to live if the Klamath Restoration Agreement lets us. The proposed
agreement would basically give the Indian government the Mazama
Tree Farm, and it would give the Indians control of most of the
water in this valley. And without water, this isn’t a sustainable
operation.”